Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

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“What? Are you kidding?”

Not daring to put it into words, silence reverberated between us.

“Could it be that because of the rain, the wooden door has taken up water and gotten stuck? If the door cannot open, let’s try the windows.” This was Ayako’s voice.

Thinking about it, there were many windows in this place, and the glass was already broken; there was no possibility of being trapped in this place.

“Mai, John, retreat.” Ayako picked up the empty glass bottle by her feet.

“Let’s break this glass and open it from the outside.”

“We’ll discuss who gets out of here first later.”

“As long as it isn’t me.”

Although our tones were relaxed, our facial expressions had stiffened a little. Ayako banged the empty bottle against the glass, creating a sound that put shivers down my spine; shards of glass littered the ground.

The bottle that was used to hit the glass, and the glass that was hit – the only one that shattered was the bottle.

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

I gestured to Ayako, who was slightly unsettled. “Aren’t there many other windows? Do we try them?”

“Y…yes.”

Naru stopped us, who were about to make a move. “Don’t move unnecessarily.”

“Ah?”

“I’m going to investigate it first. John, go to the second floor to check. – Mai!”

“Here!”

“Go with John, do not ever get separated from him. Matsuzaki-san, can you go with them too?”

“Go. Mai, go, explore forth.”

“Yeah!”

I hurried behind John and Ayako. My drenched clothes stuck heavily around my body.

Stairs were right in the center of the corridor straight from the entrance hall. If we climbed up the stairs, straight ahead would be the stage, further up were walls made from plywood, completely blocking any possible exit.

“Ah ne, there’s nowhere to go from here.”

“What a short exploration.”

“There’s a door.” There was a small door where Ayako pointed, it was locked with a small metal lock.

Although it was locked with a padlock, the lock came off the wood with a slight tug. The wood had already rotted away. Pulling aside the wood was a small doorway, we couldn’t pass through unless we bent over. Inside was a flight of stairs.

“… What should we do?” I looked towards John. Should we go down from here? What should we do if the door won’t open after we enter?

“Mai and Matsuzaki-san, stay here and keep the door open. I’ll go ahead to take a look.”

“But Naru said not to get separated.”

John smiled and said, “I’m just going a little further up, I’ll come back right after checking the state of the windows. If it’s open there I can still get out; if the windows there cannot be opened, then the rest of the windows cannot be opened either.”

I could see a window not far from the top of the flight of stairs.

“You’re just going up to that place, right?”

“Yeah, just there. I’ll test if that window can be opened and come right back.”

“Yeah…”

I propped the door open with my back, Ayako also held the doorframe tightly. John bent over and went inside. It was far dustier inside than outside.

Besides the window, there was no other light source. The light from the window was also very dim due to the rain. Inside the school building, it felt like it was already dusk.

At the top of the stairs, a corridor stretched out. Because it was a two storey building, on the first floor on the right, there were seven classrooms lined up in a row.

“Why are there so many classrooms?”

“Probably because there were so many students when this school was first built.”

“Is that so… as the number of students decreased, the second floor was not used and sealed off.”

“Probably.”

As I spoke, my eyes followed John’s back closely. John stood in front of the window and shook the window slightly, before coming down immediately. It felt like the window couldn’t be opened, it didn’t budge an inch.

“Doesn’t it work?”

John smiled bitterly, “No. I somehow feel like the windows here are all crooked.”

Saying that, he emerged from the doorway. Only at this point did I realize how tense I was; only after John emerged fully, did I finally relax. Ayako, too, let out a breath.

After we came down, Naru and co were still testing leaving through the windows. After hearing John’s explanation, Naru’s expression turned extremely severe.

“How’s it going down there?”

“It can’t be opened.”

“Let’s use a more forceful method.”

“Let’s do so.”

Lin opened a near-by classroom and took out a chair. John thoughtfully took out a small bottle from his pocket, and gently scattered drops of water and drew them into a cross.

“Please stay further away.” Lin picked up the chair and smashed it; I hurriedly covered my ears. An ear-piercing sound was created momentarily.

“– Ah.”

I looked at the shattered chair, then at the window. At the instance the chair was flung towards the window it swayed crookedly. But that was all: neither the window frame nor the glass sustained any damage at all. I picked up a broken chair leg and flung it towards the glass. Regardless of how hard we smashed the glass, not a single crack appeared.

Without any inflexion whatsoever, Naru said,

“We have been completely sealed in.”